Editorial: If the overhead bins are full, here's what you do

Just in time for the busiest travel weekend of the year, the U.S. Travel Association confirmed in a survey what many frustrated fliers already know: The No. 1 airport peeve is passengers who schlep too many carry-on bags through security and onto flights.

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That number has skyrocketed in recent years — 86 million more bags were carried on in the year that ended Aug. 31 than during the same period two years earlier, the Transportation Security Administration estimates. Checked baggage dropped nearly 17%, while passenger traffic increased 3%.

The reason for the carry-on jump is no mystery: All the major domestic airlines — except JetBlue and Southwest — now charge to check even one bag, generally $25. To save money, and time at the baggage claim carousel, passengers lug as much as they can on board, with predictable consequences.

At security checkpoints, these millions of extra bags, many of them densely packed, mean longer lines as busier screeners check more bags that require more effort to detect contraband. While the TSA insists that security doesn't suffer, logic suggests that it would, particularly on the busiest travel days.

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Also, if the TSA were to add the equipment, security lanes and screeners necessary to keep up with this avalanche, it would cost about $260 million a year. So, in essence, taxpayers would end up footing the bill for the airlines' revenue grab. If TSA doesn't spend the money, fliers pay in the form of inconvenience.

Once past security, the fun continues at boarding. On a typical flight, there's a fierce fight for scarce bin space, extending the boarding process. Bags are stuffed under seats, making passengers even more uncomfortable. And then there are always the passengers with gargantuan bags who are forced to check them at the last minute while everyone else waits. Even more infuriating, they often avoid the bag fee.

There has got to be a better way. In fact, there is. Here's what a more sensible system would look like:

•No fee for the first piece of checked luggage. As we've argued before, it would be better if airlines simply raised fares instead of nickel-and-diming passengers for every conceivable amenity. If carriers persist, fliers' discontent is likely to produce popular support for a measure introduced last week in Congress that would prohibit airlines from charging for that first checked bag.

•Enforce the existing carry-on size limits, using templates at the security checkpoints to intercept the monster bags that now often escape airline personnel's notice until they're right at the door of the plane.

•Charge for large carry-ons. Some travelers would squawk at first, but think back to how smoothly security and boarding went immediately after the ban on liquids, when virtually everyone checked bags.

•Tax the airlines' revenue from fees the same way that fares are taxed. Currently, the fees are tax exempt, giving airlines incentive to generate revenue through fees rather than fare increases. Taxing the baggage fees would at least allow the government to recoup some of money it spends to screen all those extra suitcases.

We're sympathetic to the airline industry's need to make money. But the baggage fees— initially imposed to offset rising fuel costs in 2008 — have become a disruptive addiction that impairs security, offloads costs onto taxpayers and makes the boarding process even more unpleasant than it already is.

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